flambeau masters decoys, paint falling off??

[Kodiak]

Has anyone else had trouble with the flambeau masters series decoys flaking off paint...i have a couple dozen bluebills, couple dozen redheads and couple dozen mallards and they are all losing paint like it is going out of style!!! i have never seen this before with a decoy? Not acceptable at all.

[Sartell Angler]

some of our carrylites from when we first started hunting (6 years ago) are losing paint (go figure)...my buddy has some flambeaus and that paint is flaking off and they are only 2 years old.

I would contact the company and see what their customer service department has to say...I have heard of guys getting new decoys for bad paint (some batches just aren't as good as others)

Good luck.

SA/wdw

[eyepatrol]

I won't buy Flambeau's anymore. I bought some last year and after the first time used the paint was already flaking off.

[Guest]

Flambeau mallards are by far the worse for losing paint. No idea why. The other species ar usually pretty good, but occasionaly you get a decoy with junk paint.

[delta hunter]

I agree with all of you, I bought 3-4 dozen decoys last year and I'm not very happy with the paint. First time out they started to chip and flake!! But I guess you get what you pay for.

[ole matty]

last year i bought 1 doz of flambeau decoys one master, one stanard.. after 3 time of using on water the paint already came off the drake masters but hen still look good.. i like stanard flambeau better than master... but next time i m buying GHG or carrylite decoys!!

[hanson]

GHG Mallards I picked up last year have been awesome. Paint looks new still. Somewhere I heard to be cautious of the GHG "Hot Buy" Mallards as the paint on those might be questionable. Get the Lifesize Series Mallards and they have been great.

G&H has great paint as well.

[Mark Christianson]

I had paint issues on some dekes too, so I contacted the manufacturer, and ended up with a case of new decoys on my front step. No charge to me.

[pathogen]

I think Flambeau has had paint issues for a long time. Had some many years ago with the same problem. You get what you pay for.

[tearin' lips]

My Flambeau mallards have held up fine, but my carry lite diver dekes need touch up every year. I am not very happy with the paint quality on these dekes. Just my experience, but GHG seesm to be the best way to go. I have had a dozen of their mallards for almost two years and have been bery happy with the performance of them.

[koonie]

I've seen paint problems with the Flambeau dekes and with quite a few of the GHG dekes. My opinion, get yourself some G&H decoys and don't look back.

[Sartell Angler]

Quote:

---

I've seen paint problems with the Flambeau dekes and with quite a few of the GHG dekes. My opinion, get yourself some G&H decoys and don't look back.

---

agreed! bigfoots for geese and g&h for duck dekes are by far the most rugged plastic dekes on the market!

[eyepatrol]

I'll second the Bigfoot floating goose decoys. They are ssswwweeeeettt!!! There is NO amount of packing, stuffing, banging, tossing or any other normal action a person can do to take the paint/color out of these decoys. Very superior in quality!!!

[Kodiak]

called customer service yesterday, they told me to find my three worst decoys to send in and have them evaluated. Then after they check them out they will have me send them all in to be exchanged, safe to say duck season will be over before i get them back. I will have to use my old carrylites for the rest of the season.

[Farley]

Hanson, I have a half dozen "Hot Buys" and the paint was comming off before they even saw water. Mainly the Drakes at first but now the hens too.

They are actually decent dekes for the price, the size of them is nice, but yeah, youll have to slap a coat of paint on them.

[hanson]

Yep. I've heard to definitely avoid the "Hot Buy" GHG dekes. You can't miss them in the stores, they are cheap and say "Hot Buy" right on the box.

Now I'll sing a different tune about the regular GHG LifeSize Mallard decoys. We've got 2 dozen bought early season last fall and they still look like they've come right out of the box, except one, which I shot to pieces last weekend trying to finish a cripple. Now maybe they still look good because we store them in Avery 12 slot decoy bags, I don't know.

[delta hunter]

here's what I have done with my Flambeau decoys, that have chipped paint really bad! I just went out and bought flat back and flat desert tan camo paint and painted them into black ducks, and then some of them I also bought some semi gloss blue, flat black, and flat white paints and turned some of them in to bluebills. I find it to be a cheap, but some what time comsuming what to add varity to your decoy spread!! For the most part I haven't done any worse with the ducks after painting these decoys, I might say I might be have a little bit more luck!!